Thursday, December 9, 2010

COTTONBALL CHRISTMAS TREE TRIO

Little sets of "cone" Christmas Trees are ALL OVER the blogging world this holiday season, and I've been wanting to make a set for myself. There have been paper ones, yarn wrapped ones, tissue paper ones, coffee filter ones, felt ones, candy covered ones... needless to say, there is quite a variety out there. I originally was going to do mine using curled paper strips, but today, the idea of cottonballs came to me. Easy, cheap, and NO hot glue needed. Yay for no burnt fingertips.

Introducing my Cottonball Christmas Tree Trio.

Since it was so quick and easy, I thought I would do a tutorial on it. Honestly, it's pretty self explanatory, but I felt like showing a step-by-step for those of you craftily challenged.

So let's get started!!

The supplies you will need are -

(2) sheets of posterboard (I'm too cheap to buy tree forms)

approx. 200 cottonballs

pen

twine, string or yarn

ruler (not shown)

push pin

scissors

stapler

glue

decorative toppers

I'm showing you how I made the tallest tree.

Follow these same steps for the two smaller trees (obviously).

First, cut a piece of twine about 15" long

(note, I'm using Kitchen Shears because I was

too lazy to run upstairs for scissors after I started doing the project)

Tie the twine around your pen.

Starting from the pen, measure the length of the

radius of a semi-circle.

(note again, I'm using a measuring tape, because still too lazy to run upstairs for a ruler)

My largest tree had a radius of about 10-3/4".

Be sure to pull the twine taught (I obviously didn't do that, but trying to do this AND take the picture was nearly impossible)

Once you have the length you need, put a push pin in the twine.

Find the center point of the width of your poster board, and then measure down that same distance from the end. My poster board was 22" wide, so the center point was at 11" - I then measured down 11" from the end.

I put a cork trivet under the poster board and stuck the push pin

into the poster board at the marked point.

Pull your pen tight and start drawing a semi-circle.

If you have something large enough to trace a circle, go for it... it would definitely be easier.

It took me a couple of tries, but honestly, it doesn't have to be perfect.

Draw a straight line across the diameter of your semi-circle.

Cut out the semi-circle.

SIDE NOTE: My use of kitchen shears and a measuring tape were not really because of laziness, but because I was trying to do and photograph this quick tutorial while my two little boys were eating their lunch not inches from this project.

I'm amazed, food was not thrown into the photo shots.

This is my youngest, Grey.

Please ignore his snot crusted upper lip,

but do note,

the piece of grilled cheese sandwich on his right shoulder.

I digress...

OK, back to the tutorial.

After you have your semi-circle cut out, roll it into a cone shape.

Secure with staples.

There you go... said cone.

For the two smaller cones, I went about 2" less (per cone) on the radius.

The medium cone has a radius of about 8-3/4".

The smallest has a radius of 6-3/8".

Starting at the bottom of the cone, run a line of glue all the way around.

Start adding your cottonballs, and work your way up the cone.

If you pay attention and position the cottonballs with the rolled end out, they look like little fluffy rosettes. I didn't do this with the two smaller cones because at that point, I was just whipping them together to see if my idea would work.

Work your way to the top.

Glue on your decorative topper.

I used a little ornament.

(wow, do my cuticles need some serious maintenance)

And there you go.

Cottonball Christmas Tree Trio.

I sat mine on a large square platter and filled in the negative space

with little glass balls and ornaments.

It's going to be my Christmas Table Centerpiece.

Question... Should I sprinkle them with glitter?

I'm linking up here... be sure to go check them out to see all the other awesome projects.

I think these are 100% adorable. Did you know they sell tree forms at the Dollar Tree? I mean you had a great tutorial for making them out of poster-board but I'd hate to see you do all that work again for nothing! :)